Mothers' Smoking Is Linked To Child

Published: September 8, 1992

CHICAGO, Sept. 7—
The more a mother smokes after giving birth, the more behavioral problems her children are likely to have, a new study says.

Women who smoked at least a pack a day had children with twice the rate of problems like anxiety and disobedience that was found in children of nonsmokers, researchers said.

Women who smoked less than a pack a day also had children with more behavior problems, but the rates were not as high as those of the heavier smokers, the researchers said in the September issue of Pediatrics, a journal published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The study does not prove that a mother's smoking causes behavior problems in children, "but it very strongly suggests there is something there," the study's chief author, Dr. Michael Weitzman, said. Dr. Weitzman is associate chairman of pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. 2,256 Children in Study

The report was based on a Labor Department survey of parents of 2,256 youngsters from 4 to 11 years old. The survey did not ask about fathers' smoking.

Researchers sifted out traits that might have skewed results, including the child's sex and health and the mother's self-esteem and alcohol use.

Smokers' children were found to have more behavioral problems, including conflicts with peers, immaturity and a tendency to be antisocial, anxious, depressed, headstrong or hyperactive. Dr. Weitzman said smoke exposure rivaled other major stresses on children, including divorce, low birth weight, poverty and chronic illness, in being linked with more serious behavior problems.

Abstaining from smoking during pregnancy but then resuming the habit did not make a difference. Dr. Weitzman's team said maternal smoking during and after pregnancy might alter the children's brain structure or function, or might alter the mother's behavior in a way that caused problems in children. The findings could also mean that mothers who smoke are more intolerant of children's behavior and more likely to report it bothersome, they said. More study is needed, Dr. Weitzman said.

Dr. Loraine Stern, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California at Los Angeles, said she was not surprised by the results.

Data from biased observers, like mothers, have problems, she cautioned. But she said the researchers appeared to have used reliable methods, given the limitations of the data.

"There's thousands of toxins in cigarette smoke," any one of which could affect behavior in children, she said.

The Tobacco Institute, a tobacco industry group in Washington that has criticized many medical studies on smoking, did not reply to a request for comment.